Heed

Look at the size of that boy’s heed… I’m not kidding, it’s like an orange on a toothpick... Well, that’s a huge noggin. That’s a virtual planetoid...HEAD! MOVE!

- Mike Myers as Stuart Mackenzie in So I Married An Axe Murderer

~

Our days start early here in Jenworld. I usually start waking up before 6, then get the family up shortly thereafter. It’s a sucky time and we all hate it, but since someone in the school system’s central office used his/her Ph.D. to determine that 5th-8th graders should start school shortly after 7:30, that means the buses start rolling out for the kids at oh-my-god-thirty.

[I am generally quite pleased with our schools, but think that the early start times are unreasonable. Add in the homework they seem to think is okay to pile on kids and you can imagine how much we look forward to school breaks.]

Yesterday, my alarm went off and as I was stumbling around in the very dark darkness, I looked over at Pete’s clock and saw that it showed a time that was an hour earlier than mine. Not being able to think at such an ungodly hour, I couldn’t figure out how to determine the correct time, but Pete sleepily suggested that I check the phone, which has an atomic clock and is therefore always correct. I looked and the phone also registered the earlier hour. Relieved that I had another hour, but pissed that I was awake and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, I reset my clock, reset the alarm, and crawled back into bed. Given the complexity of changing the time on my clock, I still don’t know why it was an hour fast — there’s no way I could have fumbled around in my sleep and done that. After all, when the alarm does go off, I usually slap my hand around frantically until I make the noise go away.

When the correct time rolled around, we got up, dragged the girls out of their beds, and set about facing the day as bravely as we could at such an unconscionable hour. Every morning, Pete and I take turns walking the girls to their school bus stop two-tenths of a mile away. Yesterday, was my day, so I dressed the way I always do, which is to put on athletic clothes in anticipation of whatever activity that day will bring. Yesterday it was to ride my bike to physical therapy:

As I was heading out the door, I grabbed my half-zip fleece to put it on since it was 50 degrees out there. When I fold my fleeces to put them away, I always zip them shut so they’ll store more neatly. I didn’t think about this as I was pulling the fleece over my head, but I sure remembered when I got stuck and my head wouldn’t go through the opening.

While I know that the average 4 year old knows to unzip his pullover before putting it on, in my defense, I was tired, it was very early, and the sun had not yet even risen. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

What’s new in your part of the world? Have anything funny to share with the rest of us?

I was having a devil of a time figuring out where you were going with that quote… : )

That is a rather early start time for school. I wonder if it’s more for the working parents than for the students? (Most can see their kids off to school before needing to leave for work, hence the kids only being latch-key on one end of the day?) *shrug*

The dark is what’s killing me. As much as I hate time changes, I’m ready. 5 o’clock is sinfully dark right now and so my workouts are suffering. (Okay fine, going to bed at 11pm isn’t helping either. But! I! gots! stuff! to! do!) I’ll be on your schedule (Ohio) next week. SO not looking forward to the time difference. Getting up at 5 that time is 3 my time. OY to the VEY.

I am laughing at the idea of you trying to stuff your head through the zipped up neck!
Ha!
And I am praising God for our reasonable-r start time of 8:00 which means I wake the gang up at 7 and boot them down the driveway by 7:30 to catch their bus. Heaven.

Funny/haha, no, funny/I’m a dork yes…I was watching Battle Los Angeles last night and during an intense fighting scene my couch started to shake violently, I got a bit confused as to how Hollywood made my couch shake at the appropriate time, and only realized different when the Hubs jumps up and yells earthquake. It was a definite “duh” moment on my part.

But wait until high school, when they don’t have to be in until 09:00! I think it’s sensible to give high schoolers the late start because, for parents who have to be at work very early (as I did) the oldest kids are the last ones out of the house, so you can trust them to lock the door, feed the pets, walk the elementary-grade sibling to his bus stop.

The dark in the morning is definitely taking a toll here too –and it didn’t help that this morning, at 4 a.m., the cat decided to yell out to see if anyone was actually in the house. And yell, and yell, as she jingled her bell and made her upstairs to Emma’s bed.

I was just telling Emma how I used to walk to high school in the dark, because school started at 7:20 a.m.! Emma’s school starts at 8:30 a.m., but we still have to get up at 6:30 a.m. She’s that slow.